Frying in Olive Oil – No Problem

While the general “healthy” advice is to avoid fried foods, according to the British Medical Journal – http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e363 – it may not be bad for you if you use the right oil.

According to the study their conclusion was this: “In Spain, a Mediterranean country where olive or sunflower oil is used for frying, the consumption of fried foods was not associated with coronary heart disease or with all cause mortality.”

According to my research there are a couple different types of sunflower oil, but the study didn’t mention which variety was used.

The study stated, “An average 138 g of fried food was consumed daily, including 14 g of oil used for frying.” That works out to about 4.4 ounces of fried food every day – not very much. The 14 grams of oil is approximately one Tablespoon. Note that the 138 g is just an average. Some men ate up to 29 ounces of fried food in a day.

This tells me that moderation is certainly a component in this study. Trying to limit a typical American to a 4 ounce portion of anything is a hard thing to do.

It’s also interesting that they say, “The results did not vary between those who used olive oil for frying and those who used sunflower oil or other vegetable oils.” One might think that olive oil was better, but this study doesn’t show that.